Researching Charles Kerr

Kerr retired from music in the late 1940s and opened his own furniture store in Miami.

Born in Chattanooga, Tennessee on April 6, 1892, he would break into the film industry as an assistant director on the 1925 film Three Wise Crooks. Initially, he would work almost exclusively with the director James Leo Meehan at FBO Pictures, and would continue on at RKO Radio Pictures after its creation by merging FBO with the KAO theater chain, under RCA. He would remain at RKO until 1937, when he moved over to United Artists. His career would begin to dwindle during the 1940s, although he would co-author two screenplays during that decade: Li'l Abner in 1940 and 1946's Vacation in Reno. During his career he would work with such notable directors as Gregory La Cava, Lew Landers, and William Dieterle.

He became a Naval Cadet at the age of fifteen and qualified for a career with the Royal Navy. He was later a submarine commander, but was transferred to shore duties because of nearsightedness. He spent a period in the coastguards before returning to active service at the beginning of World War I where he commanded a battery of land based naval guns in support of the Serbian army. During his time in Serbia he was credited with sinking an Austrian warship by using a picket boat to launch a torpedoes attack, for which he received the DSO. After his return to the UK he was posted to Belgium in command of a land based battery of heavy naval guns. He was later transferred to Egypt, where he co-ordinated convoy movements in the Mediterranean Sea before returning to coastguard duties after the war.

He left the navy in 1923 and purchased the luxury 300 ft yacht Istar with the intention of using it for a business venture, but the refurbishment costs proved to be prohibitive. He formed a partnership with others, including Alfred Ehrenreich, with the intention of using the vessel as a factory ship to catch and process sharks in Australia. In 1930 he was arrested and charged with blackmailing a prospective parliamentary candidate. He was cleared of this charge, and at the beginning of WW2 he returned to the navy in a training role during which time he was seriously injured.